Does a black wallpaper save battery on an iPhone?

On iPhones with OLED screens, which is every model from the iPhone 12 on, plus the X, XS and 11 Pro, it saves a little. On LCD models, such as the iPhone XR, 11 and every iPhone SE, it saves almost nothing.

Is a pure black wallpaper better than a very dark one?

For power, slightly, because pure black pixels are switched off while very dark ones still glow faintly. The difference is small, so choose the one you prefer looking at.

Can a wallpaper cause burn-in on an OLED screen?

It’s unlikely. Your wallpaper is hidden behind apps for most of the day, and burn-in comes from the same bright image staying in one place for very long periods.

Dark wallpapers and battery life on OLED screens

You’ve probably heard that a black wallpaper saves battery. On some phones that’s true, a little. How much depends on the kind of screen you have, how bright you keep it, and how long your wallpaper is actually on show. Here is how it works, and what to expect.

How OLED screens use power

There are two main kinds of phone screen.

An LCD has a backlight behind the whole panel that stays on whenever the screen is on. Each pixel works like a shutter, letting light through or blocking it. A black pixel is a closed shutter in front of a lit backlight, so a dark wallpaper saves almost nothing.

An OLED screen has no backlight. Each pixel makes its own light, so a black pixel is simply switched off and uses no power, and a dark pixel uses very little. Bright pixels cost the most, and white, which lights the red, green and blue parts of a pixel together, costs the most of all.

Which phones have OLED screens

iPhone: every model from the iPhone 12 onwards, including the 12 mini, 16e and iPhone Air, plus the iPhone X, XS and 11 Pro. The iPhone XR, iPhone 11 and every iPhone SE use LCD.

Android: nearly every flagship and most mid-range phones from Samsung, Google and OnePlus. Many budget phones still use LCD. Check your phone’s specifications: AMOLED, OLED and P-OLED all mean OLED, while LCD and IPS mean a backlit screen.

How much it actually saves

The best-known measurement comes from a 2021 study at Purdue University, which tested apps on Android phones in light and dark mode. At full brightness, dark mode saved an average of 39 to 47 percent of battery power. At the 30 to 50 percent brightness most people actually use indoors, the saving fell to between 3 and 9 percent.

That was dark mode across whole apps, which fill most of your screen time. A wallpaper is different: it’s only visible on the lock screen and home screen, often for a few minutes a day in total, and it’s partly covered by icons and widgets even then. So a dark wallpaper saves a fraction of those already modest numbers. For most people that comes to a percent or two of a day’s battery at most, and often less. It’s a real saving, but not one you’ll notice by itself.

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One of three slots, seen by people choosing what goes on their screen.

Where it does matter: the always-on display

The exception is a phone that shows its lock screen all the time. iPhones with an always-on display, the 14 Pro and later Pro models, plus newer models such as the iPhone 17, keep a dimmed version of your wallpaper on screen whenever the phone is face up and idle. That can add up to many hours a day.

On those iPhones, a dark wallpaper makes a noticeable difference to the always-on display. Better still, open Settings, Display & Brightness, Always On Display, and turn off Show Wallpaper. The screen then shows the clock and widgets on black, which saves more than any wallpaper choice.

Samsung’s Always On Display shows the clock on black by default, so your wallpaper doesn’t affect it unless you’ve chosen to show an image there.

True black and nearly black

A pixel set to pure black, #000000, is fully off. A pixel set to a very dark colour, such as the deep indigo at the top of a night-sky wallpaper, still glows faintly. Pure black saves slightly more, and it also gives OLED screens their deepest contrast, which is why dark wallpapers look so rich on them.

In practice, a wallpaper that’s mostly very dark with a little light, a moon, a lit window or a band of aurora, saves nearly as much as a black one and is far more pleasant to look at. The dark collection is built around exactly that.

A word on burn-in

OLED pixels age with use, and a bright image left in the same place for very long periods can leave a faint ghost. A wallpaper is a low risk: it’s covered by apps most of the time, and modern phones shift pixels slightly to spread the wear. The status bar and navigation buttons, which never move, are more likely culprits than anything you choose as a wallpaper.

What saves more than a wallpaper

If battery life is the goal, these matter more, roughly in this order:

Lower brightness. It’s the biggest single factor for any screen. Leave automatic brightness on.
Dark mode everywhere. Apps are where your screen time goes.
A shorter auto-lock. A screen that switches off sooner uses nothing at all.
The always-on display, off or without the wallpaper, if your phone has one.

A dark wallpaper is the final, pleasant touch on top. For help choosing one that keeps your apps easy to find, see how to pick a wallpaper that keeps your icons readable.